April 3, 2004
Kerry's Piñata Politics
Available online at:
http://www.hispanicvista.com/html4/040304cc.htm
By Leonard Brennan Rodriguez
Earlier this month in San Antonio,
Texas, John Kerry was introduced to the Latino community.
With the junior senator at his side, Hispanic democrat Henry
Cisneros gave the honors and made a bold statement about San
Antonio's political identity. He called his hometown, half
of which is Mexican American, the most democrat city in
Texas and said that it always would be.
Cisneros' comments however, were not
just meant for a Texas hooray. What Cisneros was really
rallying was a pleading declaration for continued political
allegiance to the Democrat Party from already fracturing
Hispanic voting bloc. To the political observer, the
Cisneros and Kerry event begged two questions: If President
Bush is sure to win Tejas, why all the political attention
on San Antonio? And more importantly, why the pleading
rallying call to the Latino community, a said base for the
Democrat Party?
In political speak San Antonio is
described as the Great American Mexican-American City. It is
not white Dallas and it is not the brown border. It is, as
it is on the map, the middle; and at the core of San Antonio
is the heartbeat of the nation's Mexican American community.
San Antonio is the epicenter for Mexican American politics,
culture and information. For all political purposes, San
Antonio and Mexican American might as well be synonymous.
You influence San Antonio and you begin to influence almost
two-thirds of the nation's Latino population. Politically
speaking, this is why San Antonio matters in Presidential
elections.
But for this election cycle, the more
important question is why does Senator Kerry have to
convince his own base for support, especially if San Antonio
and the Mexican American community always have been a
democrat stronghold and always will be? For starters, try
because Senator Kerry has no relationship or history with
the Hispanic community. Unlike President Bush, who governed
in a state where over thirty percent of the population is
Latino, Kerry hails from Massachusetts where the Latino
population is less than seven percent. Not until his
presidential campaign started did Kerry realize the Latino
community and then turned to the only two Hispanics he could
-- democrat loyalists Henry Cisneros and Bill Richardson.
It is also equally important to note
that Senator Kerry has accomplished little legislatively.
Of his eight bills in nineteen years that actually have
become law, two of them have to do with commercial fishing
and ocean research matters; one of them was a grant and the
remaining were ceremonial. Kerry’s proven Senate record, or
lack thereof, is hardly one to lead a nation much less
champion Latino issues. But what his recent record to
Latinos does show is that when President Bush nominated the
first Latino to serve on nation's second most powerful
court, Senator Kerry said "No" to more Hispanic
representation in the Federal Court system. For a party
leader who is supposed to champion diversity, Kerry takes a
third-row back seat to President Bush who is known for
assembling the most diverse Cabinet in history and who has
appointed more Hispanics than any other U.S. President.
March 6 marks an important day in
Hispanic history. It is the date the Mexicans recaptured the
Alamo and in 2004, it is also the date Senator Kerry needed
a Hispanic broker to introduce him to what is supposed be
his own base. Interesting enough, ninety miles north on this
same date, President Bush hosted President Vicente Fox. And
while the two Presidents were progressing on issues truly
important to the Latino community, Kerry was engaged in
everything democrats falsely accuse the President of -
pandering with no Hispanic record to tout at a symbolic
mariachi piñata politics rally absent of any real substance.
Leonard Brennan Rodriguez is a San
Antonio native and former White House advisor to President
George W. Bush. Contact at:
lrodriguez@sbinfra.com
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Republican
National Hispanic Assembly
